Strength through Weakness

Strength through Weakness 

A poem by Joshua Shehata

Let my eyes be shed to tears before Your Majesty,

My service to You and everything around You is the source of blessing magnifying my life,

As I bow down, You transform my many sorrows to a masterpiece,

From simple favours to life changing decisions

And yet, my love for You only grows stronger.

 

My strength is through You,

and as I begin to realise my mere human weakness,

only then can I observe my worldly limitations crumbling before me.

As you surround me with your presence,

My strife turns into might,

My sadness transforms into happiness,

And my fragility into steadfast faith.

 

I will never cease to continue serving what You began;

To change the world in a way never known to man.

Thank You Lord, for allowing me to be Your unworthy servant,

My heart melts before Your awesome presence,

And yet when You embrace me in Your arms, it’s another deja vu of my adolescence,

Feeling like a child once more,

Doing everything I can in Your Name because You’ve done so much more,

Allow me to feel Your love, wrap me tight around Your arms,

Allow me to feel the true sacrifice You gave to me,

That the humans of Your time couldn’t grasp even after every glance.

 

Remember me O Lord when you come into Your kingdom,

And allow me to be your servant on Earth for as long as I live,

Hand me your wisdom so I may join you in Paradise for all eternity.

Five Minutes

Five Minutes

by Marc Bastawrous 

“If you had just 5 minutes with God, what would you say to Him? What would you do?”

That was the silly question posed to me by a close friend of mine once; a question I admit I paid very little attention to on the basis that it was extremely flawed. For starters, God is not limited by time, so by restricting His time to mere ‘minutes’ bothered me. Furthermore, what could I possibly do or say to God in a short 5-minute period that would effectively change Him or change the way He looks at me? I wouldn’t even entertain the thought of responding to such a scenario. It was an ignorant, thoughtless question that no one could realistically answer and I let my friend know it (we’re still close don’t worry).

That was until passion week some years later, when I finally came across someone in a position suitable to reacting to this very scenario. This person is the beloved disciple and friend of Christ, Peter. Let me explain. Following the death of Christ, the disciples were in apparent hiding for 3 days. Not much is said about this time spent in secrecy and even less is said about their thoughts and feelings regarding the events that had transpired. However, one thing is for certain. Each disciple carried with them a level of guilt and anguish over their actions on the Lord’s last day (all but John). They all bore a sense of responsibility for what had happened to their Master. Of the 10 who remained in hiding (John was probably caring for Mary, and Judas, well, he was ‘out of the picture’), 9 of them carried an equal amount of accountability for forsaking Him in the garden. The other one, was Peter. Peter’s forsaking of Christ was a much deeper betrayal. The wound he carried with him post-crucifixion was one of denying His Master and best Friend. And now, he was left in a wilderness.

Often when you lose someone close to you, the one thing you value above all else are the last words you shared with each other. Let’s explore the last words Peter and Christ shared before the Crucifixion:

 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: 

‘I will strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered,’

But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”

Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”

 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”

Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”

And so said all the disciples.

– Matthew 26:31-35

His last words to Christ were a promise. “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” There is no doubt that these words haunted Peter in the days after Golgotha. And when I put myself in his shoes all I could imagine him thinking was: “If only I could take those words back – if only I had 5 more minutes with Him.”

Peter is the ideal candidate to answer this question because his time with Christ was ‘up’ as far as he was concerned. But what exactly was his answer?

I imagine Peter didn’t arrive to a conclusive answer immediately. After all, what would you say to Someone you had just denied? Perhaps in the days after the Lord’s death, Peter went back to Golgotha where the Cross may still have been raised. “If I had 5 more minutes with Christ, I would sit in silence at the foot of His Cross,” he may have thought to himself.

Or maybe Peter wandered away from the disciples and went to the Garden of Gethsemane. “If I had 5 more minutes with Christ, I would watch,” he may have contemplated. It’s all speculation but one thing is for certain, Peter yearned for 5 more minutes with his Lord. He desired it above all else and probably, above all others. How can we say this for sure?

On the third day post-crucifixion, Mary Magdalene returned to the place where the disciples were staying and shared the news of the empty tomb. Peter’s response is as follows:

“Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.”

-John 20:3-4 

He ran. He didn’t wait to hear any more details, he didn’t ask any questions, he just ran. He was in a rush to see Him. Three days of agonising over what he could have said differently, what he could have done differently, and now, a glimmer of hope. “Maybe now is my chance to change everything.” The other disciple who ran with him is thought to be John and, being the younger of the 2 of them, outran Peter to arrive at the tomb first. Although, in spite of his age, I can still picture Peter running to the point of gasping for air. No pain or hurt could compare to the anguish he had just gone through and, even if he had to do it through wheezing breaths, he would tell the Lord exactly what was on his mind. Alas, the tomb was empty, and the Lord was nowhere to be found. Peter would have to wait for his 5 minutes.

That same evening, the Lord appeared to the disciples and revealed to them His risen body. He encouraged them and told them of the Promise of the Father (the Holy Spirit) that would come and endow them with Power. He appeared a second time 8 days later because Thomas was whining that “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). Still Peter could not find the opportunity to speak to Him. Maybe it was during this time that he second guessed himself. “What could I even say to Him?” Peter would still have to wait for his 5 minutes.

And then finally, a few days later while the disciples were out fishing, the Lord reveals Himself (miraculously) to them once more. This time, Peter would have his 5 minutes one way or another. Being out at sea, “he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea” (John 21:7). Picture it. A man of old age, diving into the ocean and swimming to shore like a maniac. I don’t think Peter even knew what he would say to Him, but he would have his 5 minutes with the Lord. He would have the chance to right the wrongs of the last words they shared with each other. It’s what he had been longing for all this time. It can’t wait anymore.

When Peter arrives at shore, the Lord asks him the one question capable of driving a sword into his heart, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” (John 21:15)

I guess this needs a little explaining. In the Greek language, there are three words used to define ‘love’ – and each word carries with it a specific connotation. The word not often seen in the bible is “Eros”, used to describe a lustful type of love (which we know is not really ‘love’ at all). The word most commonly used in the Gospels is “Agape,” which refers to the self-sacrificing, unconditional type of love that the Lord Himself showed on the Cross – the type we should all aspire for. Then there is another commonly used word, “Philio” – this is the type of love that is used between friends. It describes a fondness more than a feeling of deep affection.

When Christ asks Peter, “Do you love Me?” He uses the word “Agape,” the type of love that is ready to lay its life down. So, what He is really asking him is, “Simon, are you ready to lay your life down for me? Do you love Me enough to sacrifice everything?”

Imagine the shame Peter felt in that moment. The agony of his final words to Christ coming back to haunt him once more. “Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You!”

“What do I say to that? I can’t make the same mistake. What if these are my last 5 minutes with Christ?”

And so Peter, probably through tears, probably through a voice that has cracked from the heavy emotions weighing on him in this very moment, looks into the eyes of the Lord and says to Him:

“Yes, Lord; You know that I love (Philio) You.” – John 21:15

Philio, not Agape. For the first time, Peter pours out his heart to the Lord, in truth. This time, there is no deceit, no lies. Peter, in his 5 minutes with the Lord, uses it, not to cunningly express his boundless love for Him, but to express just how little he has for Him. He uses his 5 minutes with Christ to give Him his heart.

Peter tells Him, “Lord, I can’t give you the love You’re deserving of. I can’t promise that I would lay down my life for You. I can’t even tell You that You’re the most important part of my life. But what I have I give You. Here’s my heart and all it’s truths. It’s not much but I want You to have it.”

Peter decided that if this was to be his last 5 minutes with his Lord, then he would be honest with Him. In psalm 15, King David asks: “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?”And a single verse later answers with: “He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart.” In psalm 51 he also writes to God, “behold, You desire truth in the inward parts.” But perhaps, most beautifully, Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 2:19:

“Arise, cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.”

Pour out your heart in truth to Him. No matter what garbage exists in there, no matter how little love – pour it out like water before Him. It was no coincidence that the Lord chose these 5 minutes to restore Peter. It was this scene that corrected my ignorant understanding of the question posed to me by my friend. Yes, while God is not limited by time, I am. And while nothing I say or do will change Him, it will change me and the relationship I have with Him. It paints the picture of true prayer.

“Prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important thing it changes is us. As we engage in this communion with God more deeply and come to know the one with whom we are speaking more intimately, that growing knowledge of God reveals to us all the more brilliantly who we are and our need to change in conformity to Him. Prayer changes us profoundly.”

– R.C. Sproul (The Prayer of the Lord)

So, after all, it’s not the most unreasonable question in the world. And no doubt this is not the only reasonable answer out there. But it’s mine. What’s yours?

+ Glory be to God. Amen +

Forsake the World

Forsake the World

by Monica Gerges

To forsake the world is a difficult feat – the struggle is real and constant.

Our thoughts and decisions either reflect the values of the world we live in or reflect the values that Christ teaches us and so every thought we have and every decision we make either draws us closer to God or pushes us away. It’s ultimately up to us.

It seems simple enough. But if it’s so simple, why is it such a struggle?

The truth is, we are weak – mere humans. And we’re up against a merciless and enticing world. It isn’t much of a competition. On our own there’s no hope of victory. But what we sometimes forget is that God is our hope and victory – stronger and greater than it all.

Sometimes we feel chained and enslaved to the world. No matter how hard we try, we can’t break free of the world that’s holding us back from being with the One we love. We pray that God would give us the strength to forsake the world but what we fail to realised is this: the only way to forsake the world, is to literally forsake it – to just leave it. I personally learnt that I feel the most free when I find the time to escape the world – it’s stresses, tribulations and temptations and just be in the presence of God and behold the beauty of the Lord.

So our lives need to become about seeking the reverend presence of God. We cannot dismiss the importance of setting aside time to spend time with the Lord but we also need to be able to seek the presence of God in our daily activities and even in the world.

The ability to see God in our surroundings is founded on our relationship with Him. The better we know Him, the easier it is to identify Him in ourselves, in others and in the world around us and in this way we never leave the presence of God.

There’s no doubt that, as Christians, we are called to be different. We are called to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, pray for those who persecute us and bless those who curse us (Luke 6:27-36). We are called to be lights in the world that glorify the name of the Lord (Matthew 5:14-16). We are called to be in the world but not of it. We are called to be God’s.

Moving the Heart of God Like Saint Mary

Moving the Heart of God Like Saint Mary

by Shery Abdelmalak

 If you were to ask your typical Coptic Christian what Saint Mary meant to them, they’re likely to have a story for you. When I was younger I was always told that Saint Mary roams the earth, collecting prayers, making intercessions for her children all around the world. Her work on earth is endless. Her compassion is second to none and moves the Hand of God to action on our behalf.  

As a child, hearing stories about Saint Mary didn’t make me want to ask for her help. It just showed me that she was really busy, and if I wanted help then maybe I should ask a different saint that wasn’t so busy. It all seemed logical; they’re all saints after all, aren’t they? There is something very special about Saint Mary that I still don’t fully understand. Saint Mary isn’t waiting for us to ask for her help. She is roaming the earth looking for the broken, the lonely, those in despair, those in sorrow – and praying for those that don’t even know where to start. Lucky are the ones that go straight to her, but for those that don’t, Saint Mary fights for you too, I want to say she fights for you even more. 

It was for her sake that Jesus’ first miracle took place during the wedding of Cana of Galilee. When the wine ran out at the wedding, Saint Mary immediately went to Jesus, with faith that He could fix all. He responded saying, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4).

Jesus’ time was yet to come because those in need did not request His help but rather, His mother approached Him on their behalf. Saint John Chrysostom says, “When a person is needy, he becomes thankful upon receiving help, whereas someone who does not feel needy will not have any clear feelings towards a benefit he receives.” 

Jesus preached this to us and the church enforces it endlessly – come to Him when you are in need and He will be sufficient for all your needs. He promised us, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”(Matthew 11:28). Rest is freely given to the one that that comes to God, but we have to come to Him first. The beauty of Saint Mary and her immense love is that her intercessions start at your moment of need, even before you ask.

The Wedding of Cana was the perfect example of this. Saint Mary was the one that came to Jesu, not those in need. This miracle was likely to be witnessed by a small group; Jesus, Saint Mary and the servants that brought the pots of water to Him. Jesus acted knowing that the master of the feast and the bridegroom would have been unaware of the miracle that had occurred for their sakes. Had they have known, they would have felt great humiliation knowing that at their wedding feast, the wine had run out.

We know that humiliation, when given to God, breeds humility. But who is to say that the next time I see humiliation, I will immediately run to God instead of first trying to cover it up? Tribulations can have polar affects depending on how they are approached. Saint Mary had compassion on them so that they would learn their human weaknesses elsewhere, and not from their humiliation.

Like the bridegroom, we don’t always know. We don’t always see our human states. We may recognise our faults and attempt to overcome them on our own merits, rather than seeing that true healing comes when we empty ourselves of all pride and humiliation alike. We can be so afraid of the shame of our human weaknesses that we don’t look up to Him and beg for His mercy.

This is why we plead for the intercessions of Saint Mary. Saint Mary who interceded at the wedding of Cana of Galilee continues to have compassion on the nations of the undeserving, and pleads for us accordingly.

Hence, we remember the assumption of Saint Mary’s precious body that could never remain on our undeserving earth. The fast of Saint Mary was instituted by the people for their love of Saint Mary and complete faith in the power of her intercessions. This love continues till this day as the congregation not only willingly fasts, but desires to extend the period of fasting (with some fasting 3 weeks instead of the set 2 weeks). Her intercessions are also the reason why we call her, “the gate of heaven.” Saint Mary was the gate by which Christ entered the world and in turn, gave us Life. In the same way, her intercession continues to be the gate of salvation and thus, we fast in thanksgiving and in complete admiration of who she is and the blessing of her example.

Saint Mary is the definition of all things beautiful, of all things wise, of all things noble, of all things true. As I try to do the unattainable – writing to do her justice – I can only pray, that you, reading this, be on the lookout for her, for she is never far away from those in need, and thank her for the prayers that she has prayed for you, before you even knew you needed help. Not to mention the multitude of prayers and blessings that she desires for you. May her blessings be with us and glory be to God forever, Amen.

Line in the Sand

Line in the Sand

by Mark Anton

The student tentatively stood before the microphone and in a cavalier type of manner asked,

“…and so what are you so afraid of? That everyone will suddenly start murdering and pillaging each other just because we don’t have a book to tell us what to do?”.

He pauses for a brief moment and then asks again, but this time in a more mocking tone,

“I don’t understand, what are you so afraid of?”

The Professor slowly rises from his stool chair, calmly walks to centre stage –pensive, yet poised – and politely yet humorously replies,

“Do you lock your door at night?”

The auditorium erupts in laughter, unanimously validating the Truth everybody knew, but didn’t necessarily admit.

The scene above played out at an educational institution a few years ago. Although it may have been slightly humorous at the time, it’s reflective of a bigger issue at hand – that we are increasingly rejecting the notion of an objective and revealed Truth, rather choosing to make decisions that are often based on feelings or what we can justify to silence our conscience.

Truth, in the sense of being a transcendent anchor, is exclusive by its very nature. However, when the Truth becomes subjectified, it is no longer the truth but rather an opinion, or worse yet, a lie.

The “Truth” has been all too often and tragically traded in for “truths”, or “a truth” among many “truths”, and the contrast between them has played out throughout history over and over again, but it seems to be starker than ever before in a world that continues to embrace change at the most foundational and controversial of levels, often leaving me to question why.

I was once asked how important the Truth was to me. As I pondered this question, I thought about how the answer to this has determined to what length I am willing to seek it out, defend it and live by it. I thought about how the knowledge of Truth has not only changed my life and forever imprinted the principles by which I choose to live, but also the impact it has had on my fundamental beliefs, my morality and the very essence of who I am. The exact same thing applies on a macro-societal level, and therein lies the impact of an absolute Truth – the presence and acceptance of it has a significant and profound impact on humanity that permeates all echelons of our society.

It is why we have our courts of law, the principles that preserve intrinsic human worth and the law of our lands which have been developed over time, which have been built upon a guiding set of foundational Truths. It’s why many nations are synonymous with opportunity, equality and democracy, whilst others are rife with corruption, injustice and inequality. It’s even why some cultures will love thy neighbour, whilst others will choose to murder and pillage them.

As time has gone on, we continue to witness the incremental departure from, and acceptance of, a Truth often in the name of tolerance and advancement. In fact, the denial of its very existence has taken root in the world today, and we have even gone so far as to profess the impossibility that we can even know what the Truth is, which in turn has impacted our morality, dulled our consciences and blurred the very meaning of life as God revealed and intended it to be.

As such, we lack and deny any transcendent anchor – like a ship out at sea with no compass or reference point. There is supposedly no one, or nothing to provide the Truths that should govern life and so we are naturally left to define them ourselves, ironically feeling obliged to do so. And so humanity becomes plagued with the moral ambiguity and dilemmas that prevail today – euthanasia, abortion, same sex marriage. Even a person’s very gender and identity has become a matter of preference, and we are left with an ever growing lexicon of the definition of truth, and what constitutes a truth.

The fact of the matter is that Truth is much more than a feeling. It is timeless and beyond human manufacture. The Truth illuminates for us reality. It is ultimately the Way and the Life.

Reigniting the Truth

Reigniting the Truth

by Natalie Hanna

If you ask an average person walking down the street if the sun will rise tomorrow, the most likely response would be an obvious “yes!”, with a rather peculiar facial expression attached. If you call upon child and ask what they know about truth, they will likely tell you a story surrounding spilt milk and their mother’s drastic reaction to their first lie. However, if you ask the child’s mother on an honest day whether she has spoken, or believes she has been spoken to in less than the truth during the past week, the sincere response would be a definite yes.

Now, I am not writing to tell you about the rigid selfishness that begs to haunt us as we exit our youth, but instead to utilise these scenarios to emphasise their distinctions. Though it is true that as children we are often educated about tellingthe truth, and indeed as we grow older we more- often-then-not waiver this obligation from our tortured conscious’, the point I endeavour to make is that we are seldom educated about the impactof truth- an absolute truth we know and believe to be a fact.

Going back to my analogies, one can presume with almost certainty that an average person knows and believes that the sun will rise each day as their entire life is dependent upon the absolute truth of this fact. They will wake up each day as the sun rises, go about their day, and sleep soon after the sun sets. A young child may not entirely process the concept of truth, but will no doubt expect the truth of his mother’s wrath when attempting to bend the truth, and will rely on it each day, from his mother’s smile down to the immediate response to his cries when attempting to tie his sandal strap. Further, an adult may have developed a hesitant perception of receiving and presenting the truth, but this in itself is the resultant impact of the absolute truth we have come to know within ourselves about humanities defaults.

The question I ask to reach my end is this; If you are the Christian you say you are, what is the impact of this truth to you? Is it as far entrenched in your routine as the rising of the sun, as consistent as a mother’s care and punishment, or merely a tentative lingering, similar to that of a recognised warning or threat? And beyond this, how does one practically define and apply this to a persona one cannot see, yet alone understand? The extent of these applications arguably, is a personal journey paved by the product of one’s collaborative physical and spiritual struggles in search for more, but I will strive to convey the basic effect, or impact this journey can have.

A higher power, connection to the ranks, or limitless insurance is something any person would jump at. Why not have the upper hand? If daddy owns the company, you’re guaranteed some kind of a job, and hey I’m not complaining if I have a sure guarantee my accidents are freely covered. God is the creator after all, so knowing him must have some sort of advantage. Einstein famously said, “God created the world as a perfect machine and left it to run itself”. I beg to differ. Though indeed God gives us the free willto run our own lives, why would he send down His son if He means to remain uninvolved? And what of the undying hope certain people experience amidst turmoil? Maybe He just plays favourites. Or we could have the ability to connect to Him.

If one gets two magnets dissimilar in strengths and moves the stronger towards the other, they will not meet unless the correct ends are aligned. And try as you may, but in the final stages of the moving journey, at a certain proximity, the smaller magnet will move to meet the other. We are the smaller magnet. And our job is to align ourselves, watch for the incoming, and allow the impact to move us to meet the true source.

The Designer of mountains and Ruler of seas decided to give us one thing beyond them, and that is to feel- to feel the impact of His true love and accept Him as our Father. The methods are known to those who choose to seek them, so I will not go on to explain this. I will only say that it is not a magic trick, but a slow and deliberate burn we must re-ignite each time it fades. My last question to you is; Do you want to feel it?

God’s Paintbrush

God’s Paintbrush

by Steven Attalla

When the sun sets on a summers evening, it highlights the sky with numerous colours that generally create jaw dropping moments. When the moon makes an appearance amongst the bright stars, it illuminates the night sky and keeps us staring until our necks become stiff. Putting aside the biblical concept of time, God created the universe in six days but with us, He took nine months. I mean, if God created this amount of beauty within six days, imagine the amount of love and refinement He had while creating us. God truly is amazing, right? Want to know something even more astonishing? When God was creating the world, He put things into place by command but when it came to us, we weren’t made by voice but rather we were made by His hands.

The way we marvel at waterfalls, mountains, storms and all sorts of natural sceneries, God marvels the same way at you. The truth is, God’s love for you is incomparable. If you were given a lifespan of 3 billion years where you (in complete good health) could search the Earth, I can guarantee that you will never come across anyone who will love you as much as God does. Yes, I know it’s something hard to believe. We live in a society where if someone hurts us or betrays us, we’d cancel them out of our lives. It’s the simplest way out. In the process, we begin to build these inner walls and when the next person tries to tell us that they love and care for us, our response is “thank you, next”.

You are valuable in the eyes of God. When King David fell into sin, he repented with an utterance and God put away his sin. When Zacchaeus was exposed to God’s love, he restored fourfold of his goods! When Dimas (the thief crucified with Christ), saw the heart of Christ, he asked Him to remember him when He enters His kingdom and guess what?! In that moment, Christ had accepted him into paradise! This is how precious you are in the eyes of God. You are loved even if you struggle to accept it.

You know, I’ve always wondered why we have lines on the palm of our hands. The common theory about these lines is that they reflect what our personalities are like. Yeah I know, it’s crazy what some people come up with. Although I do confess I once searched it up on Google to find out what my palm would read and I’ve got to admit, after finding out my supposed personality, I was quite disappointed at the way my lines were drawn. But after being exposed to Psalm 139 (my absolute favourite Psalm by the way), my aspect of these lines had changed. “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).  After reading this verse, I took another look at my palms and this time, instead of seeing lines, I saw stitches.

Now, I would picture the Creator using the skin as a thread and stitching us up; leaving scars on our hands and feet to remind us of His work.

We’re moulded by God’s hands.

The fingers that ordained the moon and the stars (Psalm 8:3) are the same fingers that trace the outline of our smiles.

He has searched us and He knows us. He knows when we sit and when we rise. He understands our thoughts from afar (Psalm 139:1-2)

He inscribed us on the palm of His hands (Isaiah 49:16)

He always thinks about us. If you were to count the amount of times you have crossed His mind, they would be as countless as the sands on the seashore (Psalm 139:17-18)

As a matter of fact, He knows the exact number of hairs on your head (Matthew 10:30)

He has loved us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) and because of this great love, He sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him (1 John 4:9).

Do you see it now? That despite how filthy you may feel or rusty you may be, YOU. ARE. LOVED! Once you slap the paintbrush out of the world’s hands, the truth will varnish your heart and it will become clearer in your eyes. The Truth will set you free from the captivity of this world.

Being Favoured by God

Being Favoured by God

by Fr Daniel Fanous

And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:26-28) “Rejoice highly favoured one,” or later it says about St Mary that “you have found favour with God.” (Luke 1:30)

What does it mean? These incredible words… that somebody can be favoured by God! That God looks down upon a person and says, “you are favoured by Me.”

Is there anything more important in life than to sit and decide, “I want to pursue the favour of God?” I would love that God looks down and the person that He says, “highly favoured one, the Lord has favoured you.” is me.

What does that word “favoured” mean? In Greek it comes from the word meaning “grace,” and so it literally means that God is favouring somebody or that He extends favour or His grace onto that person. So, either He says with feeling, “I favour that person,” or gives something of Himself to that person – He extends His favour to that person. And so, for St Mary, it could mean that God is inclined towards her, that God sees her in a special light. But moreover, that she could have grace in His eyes.

Listening to these words, how can a human being have grace in the eyes of God? How can a human being, in the face of God, be said to have grace? How can God look down and say that person is special? For God, this is actually the same thing as saying “I see myself in you.” Can you imagine that? Can you imagine God saying to somebody, I see myself in you? Can you imagine the greatest human being… the president, the pope, saying “you know what, you, I see myself in you.” They’re words that are incredibly beautiful, because in saying that, I see grace in you, God said to St Mary “I see myself in you.”

Look at David’s life, God said to Him, “my heart is like your own heart… my heart is yours.” David after he had sinned, chasing after another woman, committing adultery, getting her pregnant and murdering her husband… after all that atrocities, God said to him “my heart is like your own heart,” because after that sin, he repented in such a way, in the Psalms, unlike any other human being.

In Psalm 51 we read that God only requests one thing from us, a broken spirit and a contrite heart (Psalm 51:17) and I can’t know for certain, but I feel by being favoured by God, by having grace in his eyes, having the heart of God, it is only then, like St Mary, we will attain an astounding level of humility. We become disturbed if we think we’re special, we become disturbed if we receive any glory, we become disturbed if people praise us; not because we pretend we haven’t done something good, not because you’re smart and you pretend you’re not smart, not because you’re rich and you pretend you’re not rich, but because I know that these things are due only to God and the glory likewise is due only to God… and not to me.

St Mary was disturbed by the idea that there might be anything special about her. Her humility in the face of all of this is what makes her highly favoured before God. David, even though he committed grave sins in opposition to St Mary who was pure, his repentance, his broken spirit, was equal before the eyes of God. These two qualities are so favoured by God, two things that make God say about us, “I see myself in you… you have grace in My eyes.” They represent the extremes of those who are precious and favoured in the eyes of God.

We often think that only the saints and those who are perfect are precious in the eyes of God, but if you take two children, one who is perfect and yet humble and the other who is not perfect, who is weak, who makes mistakes, but always struggling, always wants to do the right thing, when they does something wrong, straight away come and says sorry, which of those two are more precious in the eyes of the father or the mother? … they are the same. You know, in actual fact, if you ask many parents, the child that is more deficient and weaker, is somehow the one that is more favoured, in my eyes. What then for God? Let us either be like David or Mary, be pure but be humble. Be disturbed at the things that are working for you, because you know that your talents you are not yours, these are things which God has given to you, and never take that glory unto yourself lest you steal God’s glory from him.

Faithful Living in a Faithless Society

Faithful Living in a Faithless Society

by Bethany Kaldas

When a Christian says society is ‘faithless’, they mean godless, or sinful. There is, however, a kind of faithlessness that often goes unacknowledged. A kind of faithlessness that does indeed permeate much of modern Western culture today…a faithlessness we Christians are just as susceptible to as everyone else—perhaps even more so.

To show you what I mean, I’m going to tell you about Percy Jackson. You’ve probably heard of this series of fantasy novels, but if you’re one of the people who enjoyed the series, I can all but guarantee your reaction to the movie adaptations. You might say that the movies did not at all follow the design of the original tales, that they were a betrayal to the design that the author intended, trading the wonderful, unique stories for something lesser to pander to a wider audience…I’ll stop now, but you get the idea. The movies were not faithful to the books. They tried to be something they were not, something other than what their creator had made them to be, out of fear they would not be accepted as they were. You might say, they were faithless.

It’s easy to see in movies. Perhaps too easy to miss in ourselves.

The modern Western world is full of good things—but it is also, in my opinion, a breeding ground for fake personalities. It is only in first world countries where our basic needs are thankfully provided for (for the most part), that we can become so preoccupied with the most trivial of commodities—how we appear to others.

In a world like this, it is easy to forget that how others perceive us is, strangely enough, not a matter of life or death. It has very little survival value, and in and of itself, is neutral regarding our spiritual health.

‘…For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ – 1 Samuel 16:7

Yet in this society, it is so easy to slip into the selves we’ve built up so that we can shine for other people. Indeed, when wandering the wilderness, it is easier to forge gods of gold than to continue following a God who does not look like what we expect. If we ourselves do not appear as expected, why should those of the wilderness not reject us?

This is faithlessness in one of its most potent and dangerous forms. A faithlessness that is ever more tragic for the Christian than for anyone else, because we know not only the intended design, but the Designer, too.

I would dare to say, that compared to our other conceptions of faithlessness—those of disbelief or sinfulness—this kind is far more devastating to the Christian.

‘As long as we ourselves are real, as long as we are truly ourselves, God can be present and can do something with us. But the moment we try to be what we are not, there is nothing left to say or have; we become a fictitious personality, an unreal presence, and this unreal presence cannot be approached by God.’ -Anthony Bloom, Beginning to Pray

That’s the bottom line. If you are not faithful to yourself—to the person God made you—if you live your life as a lie to please others, even if they are your fellow Christians—you can never meet God. An unreal person cannot commune with the real God.

This notion is presented perfectly in C. S. Lewis’ novel, Till We Have Faces. The novel asks the question we must ask ourselves:

‘How can we meet [God] face to face till we have faces?’

We must recognise that although the world may never be satisfied with who we really are, though it may only want to look at masks forged of gold, God wants to meet us face to face. He will settle for nothing less.

And when we do muster the courage to be faithful to who we were made to be, when we finally cast away the false self we’ve created, we see the person that God created, the person we were so frightened of setting free. We stand in the light of our Creator, fully real, fully exposed—and see what we truly are. And what will we say?

‘I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Marvellous are Your works,

And that my soul knows very well.’ – Psalm 139:14

The Relevance of Orthodoxy

The Relevance of Orthodoxy

by Marc Bastawrous

It’s one of my earliest childhood memories. It’s a Saturday night and the whole family is together when my Dad asks those words us kids always dreaded hearing, “why don’t we all go and get dinner?”

Family dinner nights meant sitting around at some restaurant arguing with my sisters and fending off questions about school from both my parents. It almost felt like we were being punished for something. Although, every now and then on the way home, Dad would ask the only question we longed to hear from him, “who wants to rent a movie from Civic Video?”

You could not describe our joy! That feeling of running down the aisles of Civic Video looking for movies we would binge together that night over popcorn and ice-cream was so exhilarating. The process of finding a movie would often take about an hour; trying to find one that catered to everyone’s taste was not easy (I had to learn to enjoy Romantic Comedies).

Nights like these were so joyful in our family because they were so rare. The reason for this was due to a combination of school nights and more so, the sheer effort it took to go and rent a movie.

Enter: Netflix.

Since Netflix entered the scene, places like Civic and Blockbuster have fallen into an abyss of absolute worthlessness. In fact, the Blockbuster right beside my school burned down and we didn’t hear about it until we returned from our summer holiday. Such was their insignificance. However, that’s not to say they went down without a fight. Perhaps you would have noticed a few Blockbuster ‘vending machines’ whilst walking on the street. They downsized from large shops to vending machines in order to make it easier for the public to rent movies and more importantly, to stay relevant. Nonetheless, it was still no match for the simplicity and accessibility of Netflix.

Throughout all of history, you will find that businesses, the entertainment industry and even world leaders will have taken steps in order to remain relevant. In fact, life itself demands us to stay relevant if we are to thrive.

If you look up the definition of ‘relevant’ here’s what you’ll find:

def: Relevant /ˈrɛləv(ə)nt/

 – appropriate to the current time, period, or circumstances; of contemporary interest.

So then, how does the church fit into this picture of relevancy?

Well, throughout the history of Christianity, many churches, like Blockbuster and Civic video, have tried to mould themselves to suit the interests of their times (hence the Protestant movement). One church has remained stubborn though. The Orthodox Church.

Orthodoxy means ‘right’ or ‘straight worship’ and the Orthodox Church represents the earliest church founded by the Apostles on the belief of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection over 2000 years ago. Thus, Orthodoxy embodies original Christianity. It is not a denomination; it is pre-denominationalas it has existed since before the schisms of Christianity. Through the course of these past 2000 years as such, the Orthodox church has held fast to its traditions, maintaining the sacraments and important elements of the liturgy.

Therefore, the obvious question that comes to us is, how does a church that holds so tightly to a 2000-year-old tradition, instituted by a bunch of old dudes preaching about the need to bear the heavy burdenof the Cross, stay relevant in an era that functions on simplicity? The answer: it doesn’t. And that’s what makes it relevant.

It is relevant in its need. As the cliché goes – “the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” The fact that the Orthodox faith has not deviated even in the slightest from the earliest church means it tailors to the needs of the world in the purest form of Christianity.

It is relevant in its worship. If I wanted to get the most out of my car, who would be the best person to talk to: the creator of the car, or the creator of a different car? Christ Himself established the Orthodox church and passed it on to the Apostles, hence providing us with the most unblemished way of worshipping God.

It is relevant in its universality. In our Creed we say, “in one, holy, universal and apostolic church.” There are no boundaries. The Orthodox church is open to all people from all different walks of life.

The church today has grown, been established abroad and progressed to the point where the liturgy and Gospel are spoken in many languages; but the fact that it remains unchanged until today is part of its beauty.

It is an ancient faith in a modern world!

So then, is Orthodoxy relevant? The simple answer is:

 It’s not supposed to be.

But, here’s the thing. That which is timeless will always be relevant